Being wrong about something may harm you in the long term. Being right when others are wrong can get you killed right now.

Not sure how exactly this relates to the article (maybe it doesn't), but I feel weird when this obvious part is missing from a debate about instrumental rationality. As if there is just me and the universe, and if I have the correct beliefs, the universe will reward me, and if I have incorrect beliefs, the universe will punish me, on average. Therefore, let's praise the universe and let's have correct beliefs! I agree that if I were a Robinson on an empty island, trying to have correct beliefs would probably be the best way. But most people are not in this situation.

It is a great privilege to live in the time and space when having the right beliefs doesn't get you killed immediately. It probably contributes to our epistemic rationality more than anything else. And I enjoy it, a lot! But it doesn't mean that the social punishments are gone completely. Even in the same country, different people live in different situations, so probably an important strategic move in becoming more rational is to navigate yourself in situations where the punishment for having correct beliefs is smaller. If you can't... then you play by the more complex rules; the outcomes of epistemic rationally may be smaller, and you might need some doze of Dark Arts just to survive. (And by the way, this is the situation we are optimized for by evolution.)

Uhm... not sure where I wanted to get by saying this. I guess I wanted to say that "epistemic rationality is the best way to win" depends on the environment. In theory, you could have epistemically correct beliefs and yet behave in public according to other people's wrong beliefs and expectations; but I think this is rather difficult for a human.